


I Get By on This Naïveté

by junes_discotheque



Category: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming Out, Coming of Age, High School, M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension, inappropriate relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-12
Updated: 2013-04-12
Packaged: 2017-12-08 06:15:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/758037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junes_discotheque/pseuds/junes_discotheque
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will's family makes a sudden and mysterious move to California the summer before his senior year. What starts out as a complete nightmare is suddenly eased a bit by the presence of Ben Wade, his strange and probably dangerous next-door neighbor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Get By on This Naïveté

**Author's Note:**

> And so begins the modern AU. Some quick notes: Rating will go up, but I'm not sure how *soon* it'll go up so it's staying Mature for now. Underage warning may be added later, may not be, depending on how much willpower Ben (and I) have. I have clearly thought this through a great deal.

About a week and a half after his junior year of high school, Will Evans comes home from a really excellent movie with a really pretty girl he totally didn't make an ass of himself in front of by choking on popcorn and nearly fainting (much). He throws his shoes in the closet and heads in the direction of the Hot Pockets in the freezer. When he walks into the kitchen, his mom and dad (home from work early, and that's never good) are sitting somberly at the kitchen table and there's a whole lot of banging and screaming going on upstairs.

“What's with Mark?” Will asks.

His parents exchange a glance. This has just gone from 'not good' to 'probably catastrophic to Will's social life'. “Sit down, Will,” his dad says. Will raises an eyebrow and doesn't move. His mom sighs.

“Your dad was laid off last month,” she says. “We didn't want to worry you kids, so we didn't tell you.” Will just stares at her. He's a little angry and a lot confused. “Oh, but it's okay! He got a new job. A better job, with a great company and a better salary and—well, why don't you tell him, honey?”

“Tell me _what?_ ” This has gone from 'probably catastrophic' to 'find a way off the planet in the next five seconds'.

“It's in California. Los Angeles.”

So that's it, then. That's Will's entire summer ruined. Granted, he kind of really fucking hates Arizona sometimes, especially Bisbee, and he planned on leaving anyway, but that was for _college_. After graduation. Not—not right now, when there's so much he wants to do and when things with Amanda are looking so promising and his teachers finally realize how goddamn brilliant he is. He wants to scream, rage, throw a tantrum like the one Mark's apparently carrying on with upstairs.

“When?” 

“Two weeks,” his mom says. “We have a buyer for the house and we've been looking at places out there and I think you'll really like what we picked.”

“What about my senior year?”

“There's high schools in LA, son,” his dad says. “I know it's not ideal, but—”

For some reason, it's those two words that set Will off. “Not _ideal_?” he yells. “So you fuck up and all of us have to pay for it? Why can't you just go and I can stay here and—I dunno, I'll get a job, find an apartment, finish school with my friends—”

“Honey,” his mom says gently, and that just pisses him off more. “Will, I'm sorry. I know you wanted to finish high school here, but this is what's happening. We all have to make sacrifices. And it'll be better in the long run, I think.”

“And you're sixteen, kid,” his dad says. “I'm not letting you stay here alone.”

Will's fingers itch to grab the ugly vase holding their cooking utensils and hurl it at his parents' heads, defying all laws of physics, but he doesn't. It wouldn't do any good. So he nods, and goes upstairs, and packs a bag, and climbs out the window.

His parents want to take him to California? They'll have to find him first.

~ * ~

To make a long story short, the hobo who's been buying Will and his friends beer for the past two years is a fucking traitor. And Amanda, when she hears Will's moving, puts on a decent show of looking sad and then asks out Will's friend Connor two days later.

Will thinks it wouldn't matter so much if he'd kissed her first, but he didn't, and he's sixteen years old and still hasn't even had his first kiss.

And he's moving to LA.

The drive is long, and longer for his unwillingness to speak to his parents at all. He turns his iPod up loud and stares out the window and tries to burn the images of ragged desert and bright cacti into his mind. Mark sits next to him and reads. He jostles Will a few times, mostly to grab juice out of the cooler Mark can't quite reach, but for the most part it's an uncomfortably silent drive.

Good, Will thinks. His parents deserve it, and worse.

He plots.

~ * ~

He's still plotting when they pull into the driveway of their new home and Will's dad shakes him awake.

“Look alive, kiddo,” he says. “Come check out the new place.” Will growls at him and yanks his arm away. Mark's already halfway down the driveway (which is _long_ , seriously, who the fuck needs a driveway this long) and their mom is fumbling with keys at the door.

And then Will sees the house.

It's... kind of massive. No, that's not right; there's no “kind of” about this place. It's huge. It makes him realize he never did ask what his dad's new job is. The last one had something to do with cows, he thinks (he never cared) but he's pretty sure cows don't buy houses like this in LA.

Or hell, maybe his dad engineered a supercow made of, like, gold or something. He should ask, but then he remembers he's not speaking to his parents. He's angry. He's furious. He's going to spend the rest of this summer in his room or wandering aimlessly because he's in a new city with no friends and he should be back in Bisbee with Amanda and Connor and the assholes on the soccer team. Most of his friends played soccer, a fact that continues to baffle him since he's about as athletic as a butterfly and soccer is dull as dirt.

Inside, the house seems even huger, but he figures that's because all the rooms are still waiting to be filled with their shit. The emptiness of the rooms and the blankness of the walls is messing with his head, making him dizzy, and he finds the door to the back deck and quickly escapes.

The deck happens to overlook their next-door neighbor's yard. Which has a pool (not fair, his doesn't, Will thinks—he's determined to hate absolutely everything about being here even if it kind of bothers him because this house is twice as big as his old one and seriously he's complaining there's no pool?) and is surrounded by a fence and a few bushes.

He rests his elbows on the railing and frowns. Inside, his dad is calling for him. Will ignores it. The sun is starting to go down a little, and he guesses his family will want to go find a place to eat, but Will's not hungry. He just... He really wants to be alone.

No sooner does that thought cross his mind that a man steps out of the neighboring house and slides the glass door closed behind him. He's maybe the same age as Will's dad, with wavy brown hair that's graying at the edges. He's wearing khakis and a blue polo and it looks kind of dumb on him. He wanders around the side of the pool for a bit, then looks up.

Straight at Will.

His first instinct is to duck out of sight, but for some reason, he can't. The man's staring at him with this look like—he doesn't know, but it makes him distinctly uncomfortable. Will attempts a wave, just to break the awkwardness, and the man gives him a little sarcastic wave back.

“Hey, kid,” he calls up. His voice is rough and deep and it sends another prickle of fear through Will. He still doesn't move. “What are you doing?”

“Snorkeling,” Will calls back. The man's lips twitch a little bit like he wants to smile, but he doesn't laugh.

“Spying, more like. You're the new family? Arizona, right?”

Will nods. “Yeah.”

“Good, good.” The man glances around, like someone might be listening in. “Word of advice, Arizona. Stay away from me.”

Before Will can figure out how to answer that bizarre pronouncement, the man's gone back inside. 

“ _Jesus_ ,” he mutters, because seriously. What the hell was that? Part of Will knows he should probably heed that warning, that poking around will probably only lead to starring in a crappy _Rear Window_ remake. No, not starring, because that would mean he'd get laid. Crappy two-minute spot as a decapitated body, maybe. 

He still kind of wants to figure out what his new creepy neighbor was talking about. 

But first, Will realizes, he feels kind of... light. Like the giant black cloud that's been following him around since his parents announced the move has faded into a dark gray. It's the lightness that makes him notice he actually is hungry. And Mark's found him and is insisting they're going for pizza so stop staring into space and get into the car. 

Will follows without complaint. His plots for revenge against his family turn into plots to break into the neighbor's house. It's a much better plan, he decides. Even if the guy calls the cops, he'll get some snooping done, and then his parents can be irritated with Will's new rebelliousness.

It's perfect.


End file.
